I didn´t taste enough of Argentina´s great wines yesterday, so I'm back at it today! My German friend from Buenos Aires, Anja Tiedge, arrived just as I was having my coffee con leche this morning and she decided to join me in wine country. I warned her about the day of wine speak, but she thought she could take it.
It was much better having a navigator, and having the benefit of many directional mistakes yesterday. We found our first winery, Bodegas Chandon, with ease (well only one wrong turn and a u-turn off the highway onto a stone path through a vineyard). We had heard that the Chandon winery was a little self important and we found just the opposite. We were greeted very kindly by the guards and our tour guide seemed geniunely glad to see us. Our guide, Tatiana, was wonderful. She did not usually give tours in English and yet her English was superb. The first stop on the tour was the grape receiving area, and I was very impressed with the signs they had to describe how each varietal brought different taste qualities to the wine. It made the blending process very easy to understand. We had a great tour and a very thorough explanation of the two methods they use to make sparkling wine, why they are different and then we tasted the results in the lovely tasting room. The place exuded quality, and we enjoyed our time with Tatiana very much!
Next Anja and I made our way to the Nieto Senetiner winery. We arrived through a romantic old tree-lined driveway. The guards here were welcoming and we were allowed to wait alone for our guide outside on the spectacular grounds. The country style house made with adobe was completely surrounded by flowers (no small feat in the desert). Behind the owner´s house there were clay tennis courts with a magnificent view of the Andes. I wanted to move in really badly.
Our tour guide at Nieto Senetiner (which is a combination of the two names of the founding families--one Spanish and one Italian), was Maria Eugenia. Eugenia is the girlfriend of one of our hostel owners, Damian, who also studied wine. Eugenia first took us through the vineyards near the winery and then we followed the wine making process through the winery. It is the off season so many areas were under construction. They have almost completed a new restaurant, guest quarters, and tasting room. We ended the tour with a perfect tasting out on the grounds of the vineyard. We stood in the shadow of the Andes Mountains and had among others a wonderful Syrah and Malbec. Eugenia was fantastic and we left the splendid grounds feeling like we had just visited a friend´s house.
We immediately found a restaurant, called Los Troncos, on the town square in Lujan de Cuyo. It was an all-you-can-eat buffet and we wanted to spend the whole afternoon eating. However, after several plates we made our way to our last winery.
The trip to Catena Zapata was very difficult. The completely unmarked roads were basically stone paths. I kept expecting to end up in someone´s yard. We had to ask directions in Spanish several times and that is always fun. Then all of a sudden we came upon this amazing Mayan Pyramid in the middle of an extremely poor area. Getting past the guard here was tremendously difficult--a lessor woman would have left in defeat.
The Catena Zapata was stunning. However the tour and tasting were cold and uninspiring. They focused on selling cases and it was the only winery I've visited who charged for tasting. The final straw is that the particular wines we were allowed to taste were not as impressive in my opinon as some I had in Buenos Aires. However, the circular cellar with 4,000 barrels and a glass tasting room was something to see. They were having a wine luncheon and I wanted to invite myself to join the fun! This was also the only winery who emphasised their medals and scores by Robert Parker.
It was a wonderful day in Argentina´s wine country! I'm now a major Malbec fan. I look forward to stocking my wine cooler at home in New York with all the new wines I tasted. Cheers!
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